ATLANTA — After the Lakers’ loss to the Houston Rockets on Monday, there was significant talk in the team’s locker room at Toyota Center as to why there’s been a defensive slide over the last 1½ months.
Forward Rui Hachimura offered his thoughts.
“We [are] not connected,” Hachimura said. “Everybody. Talk. Communication. We [are] not helping each other. We help, but other guys not helping. That kind of thing. One-on-one defense too. Just get by, just beat too easily. We just got to take the responsibility.”
LeBron James appeared to agree with Hachimura, while seemingly mentioning that understanding needs to be had first before communication can.
“In order to communicate, you got to know what we’re doing out on the floor, first of all,” James said “And when you make adjustments throughout a game, you got to know when the adjustments are made so everybody is on the same page. Everybody needs to be in tune with what we’re doing so there’s no mishaps. And sometimes there will be mishaps, you have to cover for one another.
“The game, it’s not just X’s and O’s. It’s also being able to do things on the fly as well when things break down or the game presents different challenges.”
The Lakers clearly missed Anthony Davis’ presence on the defensive end on Tuesday.
“You’ve got to have more communication through the course of the possession, because you’re gonna have a little slippage,” James said. “When A.D. is out there, he protects us on that third line of defense. When he’s not out there, there has to be constant communication.”
Speaking before his team’s 138-122 loss to the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday night at State Farm Arena, the second night of a road back-to-back, Lakers coach Darvin Ham made it clear he felt that there’s an understanding within the players what’s being asked of them defensively.
“Myself, my coaches, the film work we put in, we show all of that,” Ham said. “All of that. Shifts…
Read the full article here
